Part II - A Two-Headed Monster

The Difference Between Tournament and Cash Poker

“Should I fold my cards and wait for a better spot to put all my chips at risk? With only 50 poker players left to the money, do I have enough chips to survive the blinds and antes? How long until the blinds go up? Which players at my table are susceptible to getting eaten up by the blinds? Which poker players can I steal blinds from?” When we left Part I, we began to consider the additional factors tournament poker players must consider within his or her decision-making process as opposed to cash players. These “special” circumstances often call for special action. Players might make one play in a cash poker game that he would never even consider in tournament poker, and vice versa. The unique decision-making processes required of these two very different brands of poker are necessitated by the manner in which profit is earned in tournament and cash poker play. Cash poker games reward players instantly, as every pot pushed their way comes in the form of legal tender that you can walk away with at any time. In other words, players can sit down at a cash game, double up on the first hand, put their chips back in the rack and proceed to the cashier with a wealth of chips to cash in. Though I do not recommend this method, as it won’t earn you many friends at the poker table, no one is going to stop you. (Who needs friends at the poker table anyway, right?) Poker tournaments, however, reward only the top few participants who are able to outlast the masses of other players. Described by many as marathons that call for hours of intense boredom, speckled with a few moments of sheer terror, poker tournaments require a great amount of time and patience. In a tournament that pays the top ten players, 100^th place pays exactly as much as eleventh: nothing. Therefore, major decisions within the game are heavily influenced by the size of a players chip stack, the number of players remaining, and the size of your own stack relative to the blinds. Before you take tenth, you have to guarantee yourself eleventh, and that fact is what makes survival for a tournament player his number one priority. Cash poker games, because of their static blinds and the option to buy more chips at any time, tend to suit more conservative poker players. The never-increasing blinds allow them to sit back and wait for big hands with which they hope to win massive pots. Tournament poker play forces aggression to some extent, as the blinds and antes are constantly on the rise. The track records of Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar and Johnny Chan are prime examples of the kind of success that can come from aggressive tournament poker play.

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